This is not an every day experience for me. I think we often come to believe that what we can’t perceive with our human senses or study under a microscope is not true. I often think of love in this regard. We can’t really prove love. What is it? It’s not something tangible that can be studied by the physical sciences. Nor is it merely an emotion that we feel inside. Real love is a decision, an act of the will.
Experience or Encounter?
So as I’m sitting there in the pew this morning I realize that even though I don’t see Jesus or feel His presence at this exact moment in time, that doesn’t mean that He ceases to exist. There are times in a marriage when the two spouses don’t feel warm and fuzzy inside, but their love remains to be a reality. They decide to continue loving each other. Their love is not a feeling, it is a decision. When the husband is away on a business trip, the wife does not stop loving him because she can no longer perceive him with the senses. Her love for him remains, in fact it might even grow stronger as she realizes how much she takes him for granted when he is there.
We as a Church are the bride of Christ. And although He has ascended into heaven it doesn’t mean that we can no longer see Him, hear Him, or feel His presence. By returning to the “right hand of the Father” He reigns from heaven, His power to love us and the ways in which He can bless us can transcend the limits of the natural world. Heaven exists hear and now, we can’t see it, but it is here among us.
“The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.”
~ Luke 17:20-21
Heaven is more than just simply a time or a place, it is a higher, eternal reality through which God’s love is perfectly manifested. And every time we receive the Eucharist this same heaven meets Earth. The perfect love of God touches our broken world in a way that transcends our senses, but through the eyes of faith we can see it. We can know in our hearts—with the gift of faith that God has given us—that His grace is flowing into us. Jesus is becoming one with us, infusing us with all that He is, helping us to acknowledge all that is keeping us from becoming more like Him, from being made in His image, from becoming the happy, holy saints that we are called to be.
We don’t go to Church on Sunday for an emotional experience, but to worship God. If what we give our praise and worship and adoration to is an experience, or our feelings, we are practicing idolatry, we are cheating on our husband, Christ.
Every time we receive Holy Communion we receive more than a mere symbol, we participate in more than a simple ritual, we commune with the True God who loves us beyond our feelings even “where the feeble senses fail”. He makes Himself present to us in a way that requires us to open the eyes of faith, to see and desire Him as more than just a sentimental experience. Our giving of ourselves and receiving of He who loves us is more than that, it’s a decision, an act of the will. St. Thomas Aquinas says it beautifully in his hymn “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum”.
Tantum ergo Sacramentum, Veneremur cernui:
Et antiquum documentum, Novo cedat ritui:
Praestet fides supplementum, Sensuum defectui.
Genitori, Genitoque, Laus et jubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque, Sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque, Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
Although I don’t speak latin, I appreciate the beauty of his words. Here is the english translation performed by Matt Maher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlmxJ31cpBY
Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail,
Lo! o’er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail.
To the everlasting Father, And the Son Who reigns on high
With the Holy Ghost proceeding, Forth from Each eternally,
Be salvation, honor, blessing, Might and endless majesty.
Amen.
So I thank God for the gift of faith. For without it the times when I am unable to feel Him would be complete agony. However, with the eyes of faith I can see Him, I can know without a doubt that He is there. Does your faith depend on how Jesus makes you feel? Is your worship and adoration directed toward God or toward yourself and your senses and emotions?